Free scalping EAs
The scalping collection gathers every robot and indicator in the channel with "scalp" in the name. Scalpers produce the smoothest-looking equity curves in a backtest and the most surprising live results, and the reason is not the strategy. It is the broker.
What a scalper is really trading
A scalping EA aims for a few pips per trade, many times a day. At that size, the strategy's edge is smaller than the spread plus slippage on most accounts. A scalper that averages 3 pips of gross profit on a 1.2-pip spread with 0.5 pips of slippage keeps 1.3 pips. Move it to a 2-pip spread and it loses money with the identical logic. This is why scalper reviews disagree so violently: they are describing different brokers.
The numbers to check on your account before anything else
- Average spread during the EA's hours, not the advertised minimum. Watch it on the chart for the session the EA trades.
- Commission on ECN accounts, converted to pips per round trip.
- Execution speed: the Journal tab shows request-to-fill time. Over 200 ms is hostile to scalping.
- Stops level: some brokers forbid stop losses within a few pips of price, which breaks tight-stop scalpers with "invalid stops" errors.
- Scalping policy: a few brokers restrict trades held under a minute or so. Check the terms.
Backtesting a scalper honestly
- Use real tick data and set the spread to your actual average, or a little worse. "Current spread" at 3 a.m. is not it.
- Add commission in the tester settings if your account charges it.
- Assume slippage. MT5 lets you set execution delay; use it.
- If profit disappears when you add 0.5 pips of cost, the edge is not real on your account.
Types of scalper you will see in the list
- Range or Asian-session scalpers trade mean reversion in quiet hours. Steady until a session breakout wipes a week.
- Tick or arbitrage scalpers exploit slow price feeds. Brokers detect and stop these, usually along with your account.
- Indicator scalpers use stochastic, RSI or Bollinger triggers on M1 to M5. The most honest kind, and the easiest to rebuild yourself with the EA Builder, whose stochastic scalper template is exactly this.
- News scalpers trade the spike. Spreads at that moment make most of them unprofitable outside a tester.
Sizing and expectations
A scalper trading 20 times a day at 0.1 lots is putting a lot of volume through spread. Start at the minimum lot on demo, measure the cost per day in spread and commission, and decide whether the win rate covers it. The demo guide has the logging template. Gold scalpers deserve extra caution: see the gold collection.
Frequently asked questions
Why does a scalping EA that backtests well lose live?
Spread, slippage and commission. Backtests often use the minimum spread and no slippage; live accounts have neither. Re-run the test with your real costs.
Which broker is best for scalping EAs?
One with raw spreads, low commission, fast execution and no restriction on short trades. The site does not recommend brokers; measure your own account with the checks in this post.
Are scalping EAs allowed?
By MetaTrader, yes. Some brokers restrict very short holds or arbitrage-style trading. Read the terms and avoid tick-arbitrage EAs.
What timeframe do scalpers use?
Usually M1 to M5. The timeframe in the file name is a hint; the file page and the Telegram post sometimes say more.